Hardcore no more

What is a "casual gamer" then? The 30-something who plays Tetris on their mobile? The 15yr old who buys all the FIFA games but spurns Pro Evo and anything that doesn't involve cars? Or, as one of the comments to my blog on the redesigned PS2 suggests, someone who would choose Sony's PSP over Nintendo's DS as their handheld console. Now it's time this nonsense stopped. Forget the PSP/DS issue – sex appeal versus battery life is for another blog – this bigotry is all based around a bias that many self-titled "hardcore" gamers have – Sonyphobia.

For these guys, Sony are the heathens who opened the doors to their private gaming club, letting in the great unwashed who valued graphics over gameplay, Lara Croft over Samus Aran. BP – Before PlayStation – gaming was a niche activity, enjoyed by children and teenagers with early consoles and home computers. Then came the PlayStation. 3D graphics, credible music, Tomb Raider – suddenly gaming moved into the living room and onto the front pages. People could relate to Lara and the music of WipEout. Rightly or wrongly the colourful offerings from Nintendo and Sega couldn't compete. Speaking as someone whose gaming Top 5 includes Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 I can feel the pain. But guys, and 97.89% of "hardcore" gamers are men, it's time to move on. The PlayStation has given us leftfield titles like Ico, Rez, and Vib Ribbon. Nintendo in the last two years have given us,er, disappointing sequels to Mario and Zelda. Sure, Metroid Prime and Animal Crossing have hit the spot where hundreds of PS2 titles haven't, but take off your Pokemon labelled specs. The Gamecube has flopped in Europe – kids just aren't interested in Nintendo when the likes of Grand Theft Auto are around.

Nintendo aside, I'd argue the opening up of gaming is a GOOD THING. The emergence of the mainstream market means developers and publishers have had to literally up their game. Graphics and audio are obviously now better than they have ever been; instructions, interface, all immeasurably better than even five years ago. Look in the charts – the average game now is streets ahead of its late 90s ancestors. Even the poor stuff can entertain for a while. The barriers to entry have come down – look at Singstar and EyeToy – and that's got to be good. Theoretically more people playing games means more profit, means more room to experiment. This is a golden age for gaming and we can thank the mainstream "casual gamer" for that. C'mon Hardcore, you know the score.